A brother’s love is… a brother’s love
by kolecta
Summary: Everyone knows that the best way to get to Don is through his family, right? Unfortunately, someone has taken this literally and Don finds himself racing against time to save his brother!
1. Chapter 1

**A brother's love is… a brother's love**

**Summary:** Everyone knows that the best way to get to Don is through his family, right? Unfortunately, someone has taken this literally and Don finds himself racing against time to save his brother!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the characters...

**Chapter One: Car Troubles**

Don Eppes arrived at his office early. Based on routine, Don found that he could predict with fair accuracy the order in which his workmates would walk through the door. Megan would be the first after himself; followed by David and Colby who would usually arrive within milliseconds of each other. He went about booting all the computers so that they would be ready for his friends to use upon arrival.

"Morning." Megan Reeves came in smiling like she had just won the lottery.

"Morning Megan. You look very happy today." Don observed.

"And why shouldn't I be?" She sat happily typing away at her computer.

_Oh dear_, thought Don. It's not that Megan isn't a person of cheerful disposition, it's just that it's been a while since he'd last seen her grinning from ear to ear, completely oblivious to the fact that her make up was a little smudged around the corner of her mouth and just under the left eye. Not that it mattered to Don, who normally wouldn't have noticed anyway; were it not for the fact that the room was fairly quiet.

"I have never been in a car that slow before."

"It was peak hour traffic, what did you expect?"

"You haven't heard of taking short cuts or using sideline maneuvers that are harder for the street cameras to detect?"

"I'm already on 16 points; I kinda want to keep my license, Granger. Next time you wanna avoid peak hour traffic, don't make me wait twenty minutes outside your apartment."

"What are you talking about, David? That was only like five minutes."

"Twenty."

"Five."

"I'm telling ya man, it was a third of an hour."

"No, it was a sixth tops."

"Ok, maybe like a quarter. But that's still fifteen minutes you left me sitting in sub-zero temperatures."

"It wasn't below zero; it was more like maybe three to five degrees."

Continued arguments about what the temperature outside may have been like at seven in the morning told Don and Megan that David and Colby had arrived. Apparently, Colby's ride in David's car didn't go so well.

"Sorry for the lateness, Don." David stood to attention. " I would've made it if Colby here, hadn't slept in."

"I didn't sleep in." Colby protested; then he turned to face Don. "Yeah, look we're sorry boss and we promise never to do it again."

"I was just starting to get really worried about you two. I was thinking: Where are my two star agents and what am I going to do without them?" Don replied playfully.

"Hahaha." Megan gave an audible laugh that sounded uncannily like Bart Simpson.

Everyone turned to face her.

"Sorry. I just… you two are hilarious…" She continued laughing bordering on hysterics.

"Ok, remind me not to let you near too many lattes in the morning." Said Don, now beginning to worry about Megan.

"That was some bust up eh, yesterday." Colby began to mime, holding a gun. "FBI Freeze! And then one of them tried to run, so I sprinted round the back. And then, I'm on to him. He sees my gun but it doesn't phase him so I turn as fast as I can and I elbow him like this…"

He began to play out his successful capture… on David.

"Yeah, Ok. Hey! Not so hard. Ouch. I'm warning you Colby."

At this point, neither of the two noticed what Megan was looking at. Don's cell phone had rung and he was talking on it with a look of increasing panic. Megan too was no longer laughing or giddy.

"What was all that about?" She asked him as soon as he got off the phone.

"Oh, stuff." Don shook his head. "I need to head out for a sec. Could you keep an eye on these two for me?"

Megan looked over at Colby and David, who were just straightening up from their mock-fight.

"Ok, sure. What's going on? Is everything alright?" She asked knowing full well that things couldn't be too good at this point.

"I just… there was something that I needed to sort out." Don hurriedly put on his coat.

"Hey where are you doing, man?" David asked as a grief-stricken Don headed for the elevators.

"Hey Megan, what's going on?" Colby came over.

"Er… I don't know. He said there was something he needed to do." Megan replied. "Hey David, wait!"

David ran into Don's elevator just as the doors closed.

* * *

**Note 1:** Story title is a quote from movie: Gone in 60 Seconds (1999). 

**Note 2:** Temperature units are in degrees Celsius. Sub-zero would be below 32 Fahrenheit.

**Note 3:** Thanks to everyone who pointed out my glaring error: Colby's name has been fixed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Special Thanks:** Thanks to everybody who reviewed. You guys rock! Colby's name has been fixed. Hope you like this chapter.

**Chapter 2: The Phone Call**

Inside the elevator, Don braced himself against the handle bar that was placed along the side wall to help people with wheel chair access. He kept replaying the conversation he'd had; more specifically, he kept hearing what Charlie was saying to him.

"Don, don't listen to them." It sounded muffled but it was definitely Charlie's voice. "Ouch! Ou, ou, ou. Alright, Ok. I changed my mind, er... Don, do exactly as they say; at least, until I can figure out how to untie myself."

"That was the audio proof." The man spoke with an accent. It sounded European but Don couldn't place which country. "We will send you visual evidence via SMS in ten minutes. Meanwhile, you are going to go to Room 46, Building 7, California Institute of Science, and meet up with our associate. And remember, your brother is depending on you."

Room 46, Building 7. That was Charlie's room! It made sense that they should nab Charlie in his own office on campus. Charlie was trying to reassure him; but Don didn't find much of what he had said to be reassuring at all.

He felt an odd weight on his shoulder and looked up. David had placed his hand on Don's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. This did not cause the effect that David had intended as Don literally jumped and looked up in shock.

"Who… Oh, it's you."

"What's wrong man? You look really off colour, you know that?"

"Sorry, I didn't see you there."

"Where are you going?"

"I just need to see Charlie about something." Don winced even as he spoke his brother's name.

"What's wrong?" David asked, growing more and more concerned by the minute.

"Nothing."

"It definitely looks like something to me."

They both fell quiet as the elevator stopped at level 3, and a business man came inside; causing an uncomfortable silence.

"Curse of the cigarette craving." The man smiled.

"Yeah, we were just on our way out too." David replied out of courtesy.

The man seemed to have sensed that he had interrupted something private and made a passing comment to cover up his embarrassment. Both agents remained quiet for the rest of the ride.

Outside on ground level, David began hammering his boss with questions all over again. "Look, something must have happened for you to act this way. The last time you took off without warning was when Charlie had that food poisoning scare."

Don didn't reply. Besides feeling rather foolish about how he had handled that incident; he just wasn't feeling very stable at the moment. He didn't open his mouth for fear of what might come out of it.

"Did something happen to Charlie?" David asked tentatively.

"As a matter of fact, something did happen to Charlie, and every moment that I'm standing here _chatting_ with you is a moment I could be spending with my brother so you'll excuse me for being abrupt. I need to get going." Don began to pick up his pacing.

"Hey Don, we're your brothers too; and we love Charlie. If there's anything we can do…"

"Look, the best way that you can help me now is to butt out of it. I'm sorry but it's just gonna have to that way. It's family business and I intend to keep it within the family. Go back up, I'm sure Megan and Colby will have plenty of work for you to do." Don stopped by his car and opened the door.

"Alright, but if anything pops up, you let us know, Ok?" Said David, leaning against the roof of the car.

David's phone began to ring just as Don's car sped out of the carpark.

"This is David St Claire."

"…"

"I don't know man, he just took off. I think something's happened to Charlie and he's just not thinking straight. He shouldn't even be driving in his current state."

"…"

"Huh? Oh, are you sure this can't wait?"

"…"

"I keep thinking we should be keeping an eye on him."

"…"

"Really? Oh, yeah no, I wanna help out."

* * *

California Institute of Science. He was here so often these days, he knew it almost as well as he knew his own office. 

As promised, the picture from the kidnapper had come through, and seeing it made Don even more anxious as he got out of his car in the parking lot. There was Charlie, bound with a crazy combination of rope and masking tape , sitting and leaning against the wall of someplace. The room didn't have a lot of light and seemed to be pretty big. Don guessed that it might be a warehouse. The only thing that Don found mildly comforting about the picture was that Charlie didn't have a gag in his mouth.

There was text accompanying the picture, which read: We hope that the visual evidence was convincing enough. We await your union with our associate.

Don raced through the lawns and picnic tables; past the archway which led into the thorough way; through the door to building 7; across the corridor, nearly knocking a student over who was carrying a bundle of papers; turned the corner; passed several empty classrooms and one semi-occupied room which was holding a tutorial of some sort; and before long, found himself in front of the door to room 46.

He was not surprised to see that the door was not locked. He went in quickly, veered around cautiously and found himself face to face with Larry Fleinhardt.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Due to the predominance of dialogue for this chapter, it will be presented mostly in script form instead of narrative form, because… I'm lazy and it's more convenient that way.

**Chapter 3: Larry**

"What are you doing here?" Don shouted.

"Shh. Not so loud." Larry replied. "Could you please close the door?"

Don did as requested and then turned to face Larry. He looked a nervous wreck.

**Don:** What's going on here?

**Larry:** I was told to wait for you.

**Don:** You're the associate they were talking about? I don't believe this.

**Larry:** No wait, listen. Hear me out.

Don glared at him.

**Larry:** So there I was in my room, minding my own business when these guys showed up, marched me into your brother's room, which by the way was vacant by the time I got here, and told me to wait for you. I mean you have to admit, having a gun shoved into the small of your back and hearing about the prospect of losing your best friend are both very powerful motivators.

**Don:** What did they look like?

**Larry:** Young white males, late twenties to early thirties. They seemed to have a preference for black attire and they spoke with a heavy accent.

**Don:** What did they want with Charlie?

**Larry:** See the thing is, I'm not even sure that they do want anything with Charlie, they seem to be targeting you.

**Don:** Yeah well, they've got my attention. Did they tell you what it is that they want with me?

**Larry:** They did say that they were planning something. Probably something pretty big and my guess is that they don't want you to investigate it.

**Don:** How do they even know that whatever they're planning will even end up on my desk?

**Larry:** Well it's not like there are multiple FBI departments within LA.

**Don:** Yeah, but there are plenty of divisions within the FBI. They targeted me because I'm the lead agent of my team but there are at least twenty other people in the FBI who are in the same position as me. What are they going to do, kidnap twenty other family members?"

**Larry:** That would be the idea.

Don stared at him.

**Larry:** What? You're the one who'sthinking like a criminal here. I'm just helping you with the exercise.

**Don:** There's got to be a reason why they targeted me.

**Larry:** Maybe you've tracked some of these guys before and they know that if they commit another crime, you'll be on to them.

**Don:** That's true. I mean it's a statistical fact that you are more likely to be kidnapped by someone you know than by a complete stranger right?. The question here is, who is it?

**Larry:** Well, how many people do you know are young white males with a preference for black attire and who speak with a heavy European accent?

**Don:** No one readily springs to mind.

**Larry:** Well do you have any hunches that you could work on?

**Don:** They're assuming that I'm going to be alone. They got Charlie, expecting me to react in the same way as any other victim and they were right. They did get me, at first. But they also should have taken into account the fact that they're dealing with an FBI agent.

Don quickly pulled out his cell phone.

"What are you doing" Larry asked, nervously.

"What I should have done about 20 minutes ago." Don replied, pressing speed dial.

"You're going to call your office?" Larry shouted suddenly.

"I have to. I have a much better chance of finding Charlie with my team behind me. Hey what are you doing?" 

Larry grabbed Don's phone off him and shut it. "They grabbed Charlie to stop you from launching an official investigation, but now you're going to do it anyway?"

"What am I supposed to do? I can't just sit here, waiting for further instructions. I've dealt with kidnappings before and I know that the more time that passes, the less chances I'll have in finding Charlie."

**Larry:** I know but… and I'm sorry to interfere. I mean I know this is you line of work. Just the thought of Charlie, locked up somewhere all by himself…

**Don:** I'm not going to let anything happen to him. You hear that? I'm not.

Just as he said that, his cell phone rang. But as it was currently in Larry's hand, he was not the one who answered it.

**Larry:** Don Eppe's phone. 

**Don:** It's him isn't it?

Larry made a gesture for Don to be quiet.

"No, of course we'renot." Larry spoke into the phone. 

"…"

"This is Larry, we met this morning."

"…"

"Yes I will be sure to let him know."

After this, he remained rather quiet for some time. From far away, it sounded like someone was talking very fast on the other line.

Don grew more and more impatient. "Give me that."

"huh? Wait!" Larry exclaimed, surprised.

"… Ve vill send you ze first clues via SMS in five minutes. Be ready." Said the voice on the other line, before the line went completely dead.

"He hung up on me." Don shook his head. "Clues? Clues to what?"

"To Charlie's location." Larry sighed. 

**Don:** What did he tell you exactly?

**Larry:** Well, he said that he knows that you're not one to sit around and wait. He knows that you're going to investigate the matter and he said that by God's mercy, he will make it easier for you…

**Don:** Excuse me, "_by God's mercy_"?

**Larry:** Hey they're his words, not mine.

**Don:** Keep going.

**Larry:** Well, he's going to send us clues, which will lead us to Charlie's location. So he claims.

**Don:** What kind of a game is he playing at?

**Larry:** I don't know. 

* * *

**Criminally Charmed:** You were right. I mean no one would really expect Larry to... well, you know. Right? Hmm... you've given me a good plot bunny there. Evil Larry! Rofl. 

**Reader:** Plot is starting to sound suspicious.  
**Kolecta:** Yeah OK, so I stole from "Da Vinci Code" and "National Treasure". I can't help it. I like those movies. lol.

**A/N:** Expect a bit of a wait for the next installment. Busy post-Easter period.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Script form will be used for this chapter too, but only for telephone conversations.

_Come on, please pick up._ Don thought to himself as he counted the number of rings. Six, seven… What was taking them so long? The general rule within the FBI office was that whoever was nearest the phone should grab it within three rings, and if no one was near it, you should run for it as though your life depended on it.

Eight, nine… finally: "FBI LA, This is agent Reeves speaking."

"Megan." Don practically shouted into the phone.

**Megan:** Don, are you alright. We were all wondering where you ran off to.

**Don:** It's a long story. Listen, I want you guys to do a background check for me. Go through all the cases we've worked on, and keep an eye out for suspects who were let go for some dubious legal reasons as well we ones who were apprehended but are now due for parole.

**Megan:** Hang on a minute. What are we looking for? What happened this morning exactly?

**Don:** I don't really know that much myself. All I know is that they've got Charlie, they're trying to keep me away from something and Larry has seen them. He describes them as being young white European males, dressed mainly in black, with a heavy accent. And they've obviously got a thing against me. I'm gonna see what I can find out from my end. I want you guys to back me up from your end. I need to…

**Megan:** Wait, did they tell you what they were planning, I mean is it like a robbery or an assassination of some sort? I mean that will help us to narrow our search.

**Don:** I don't know. But I really hope that they're not planning a murder.

**Megan:** Alright got that. I'll start profiling right away.

**Don:** Hey Megan, why is there so much noise in the background?

**Megan:** Oh that. That's from the floor above us. I don't know what they're doing up there.

**Don:** OK. Thanks for helping me out. I appreciate it.

**Megan:** So, what are you going to do?

**Don:** Charlie was nabbed here in the college, so I'm going to check things out here. Let me know if you find anything.

**Megan:** Alright. Same on your end. Keep us updated.

* * *

"Alright, so I want you to tell me exactly what happened this morning. Pretend that I'm a police officer and you're a witness." Don was saying to Larry.

"Actually I find it easier to pretend that you're a federal agent." Said Larry, quietly.

"Ok."

Larry took a deep breath. "Well, Charles and I aren't exactly next door neighbours. Him being part of the Mathematics Department and me being part of the Physics Department."

"Is there anyone else who might have seen what happened?" Asked Don, anxiously.

"I'm not sure. There aren't a lot of people around on campus as this week is the start of exam period.

"So how come you and Charlie were here?"

"Charles's movements are unpredictable at best. I don't know. I just kind of assumed that he might be working on something for you. I was in my office working on some calculations for a research project."

A loud beeping sound came from Don's phone.

"Do you want to get that?" Said Larry, distracted.

"Wait. You said it was exam period. But when I came into the building there were still classes being run." Don replied.

"I would assume that what you saw was a postgraduate class or a community course being run. Most of the undergrads are at home studying now.

"Oh." Don thought about it and flipped open his phone to get to the inbox. "It's the first clue. Except it doesn't make any sense."

"Well not at first but I'm sure if you look at it long enough..." Larry sidled over as Don showed him the message.

**Your First Clue: Galilean Moons. Greek Alphabet. Kelvin human.**

"… You'll find what you're looking for." Said Larry as he came to recognize the clue for what it was.

"So what am I looking for?" Asked Don.

"You're looking for three numbers which should make a sequence of some kind. Although as to what they would mean, I'm not sure."

"Alright so what are the Galilean Moons?"

"The Galilean Moons are the moons of Jupiter as discovered by Galileo. Now Jupiter actually has more than sixty moons altogether. Galileo discovered four of them during the 1600s when he invented the telescope. Actually he didn't invent them at all, he merely improved them; but he is generally attributed with the invention of the telescope and the four moons that he discovered will forever be known as the Galilean Moons."

"So the first number in this number sequence that you're talking about should be 4." Said Don, taking it in.

"Yes. And if I am right, the second number should be 24."

"Greek Alphabet. There are twenty four letters in the Greek Alphabet?"

"Yes. Aside from having a different writing system to English, the Greeks also have a different sound system to us. There are 24 letters in the Greek Alphabet."

"So What's Kelvin human?"

"Kelvin is the international unit for temperature and is used by Scientists from around the world."

"Ok so he wants a temperature. For a human?" Asked Don, trying to comprehend the rest of that clue.

"Yes." Said Larry, who was getting rather excited. "Kelvin is measured from absolute zero. Zero for both the Celsius and Fahrenheit system have got something to do with water. Zero in degrees Celsius being the point at which water freezes without anything being added to it. Zero in degrees Fahrenheit being the point at which water freezes when mixed with a chemical salt. Zero in degrees Kelvin however, has nothing to do with water, and is called Absolute Zero because it is literally the coldest temperature that you can get in the universe. At Zero Kelvin, sub-atomic particles stop moving, and the world is simply one cold, silent and still mess."

"So what's the temperature of a person in Kelvin?"

"310 degrees. Actually it's 310.15 but I don't think we need to be that accurate for this exercise."

"OK, so we've got 4, 26, 310." Said Don, recapping. "Do any of those numbers actually make any sense to you?"

"Not by themselves no. But the whole sequence looks very much like the system we use here at CalSci for room numbers. It's like in geography they use longitudes and latitudes, we just use building number, room number and table number." Said Larry, counting them off on his fingers.

"Really? You've got everything numbered right down to the tables?" Asked Don, astonished.

"Well, not normally; but as it is Exam Period, many of the tables have now been numbered."

"We're supposed to go barging through an Exam Room?" Don seemed startled by the prospect.

"Nah. If our kidnapper wants his scheme to work, he's going to want to avoid the spotlight. Most likely, he will have chosen a room that has no exams on today or if it does, the exam would take place in the afternoon." Larry replied.

"How does he know which rooms have what on?"

"It's not that difficult to find out really. The exam timetables are put up on the Exam Room doors."

"So if I go to Building 4, Room 24, Table 310, I should be able to find the next clue to Charlie's whereabouts."

"That's the general idea, yes."

"I don't know about this." Don looked doubtful.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Sorry for the delay in updating. Prac and assignments just got a bit much. A short chappie this time, but there will be more to come. For anyone who is curious, we're about halfway. The whole thing shouldn't be more than ten chapters, I hope.

**Chapter 5: Exam Room 24**

Don kept looking around the room. Something just didn't feel right. Sure the room was quite messy but it normally is very messy anyway. And even in the messiness, nothing seemed to be out of place.

"This is what I find odd." He was saying to Larry. "Let's do this the old fashioned way." He began dusting the place for finger prints. "When you saw Charlie this morning, did he have his laptop with him?"

"Er, I didn't see Charlie this morning." Larry replied, hastily.

"Oh, sorry." Don looked up. "Well, he and his laptop are usually inseparable. It's not here so I'm guessing the kidnappers took the laptop as well."

"Maybe we should give the exam room a try." Larry suggested, looking nervous.

"Wait, not until I've collected all the evidence." Don began taking photos with his camera phone. "Carpet still as dirty as anything. See this is the kind of case that Charlie would be good at cracking." Don spoke lightly but his heart felt very heavy.

"Well yeah, this room is very interesting, mathematically." Larry voiced his agreement. "Charlie would have been able to spot anomalies here that no one else would have seen; discounting the fact that it is his room."

"The thing is though, I can't seem to find any sign of disturbance at all. It's almost like Charlie went with them willingly."

"Well, if you came into my room and examined it, I'm pretty sure you'd say the same thing. The criminals nowadays; they're so much more experienced. They don't use force anymore. They use words and threats but they rarely manhandle you or anything." Said Larry, shaking his head.

"Yeah, but everything leaves a presence. You've been pacing for the last five minutes so you're disturbing the carpet. I'm also moving around a fair bit. I just can't seem to find any type of disturbance that would match the movements of the men you've described."

In truth, he couldn't even detect Charlie's presence, which he was much better at spotting than he could for the kidnappers. It was as if Charlie had never even been in the room that morning. It was just a feeling, mostly instinctive and he could not describe it without sounding superstitious almost. So he just continued examining the room, but he kept muttering "It's just odd" under his breath.

Once he was satisfied that he had gone over every inch of the room, he followed Larry out of the building, across the grounds and into one of the adjacent buildings. He knew that this was Building 4. The exam room that the kidnappers had chosen was on the ground floor. Very convenient, Don was thinking. And sure enough, Larry was right; there were no exams in that room for that day. The room however, was already set up.

"There can't be more than about a hundred tables in this room." Said Don, as he surveyed the place on entry.

"Maybe our kidnapper had a preference for small rooms." Larry put in.

"Yeah, but we're supposed to be looking for table 310." Don replied, irritably.

"You're assuming that the numbers are starting from 1."

"Aren't they?"

"Nope." Larry began to read out the numbers. "Let's see, we have 248; 248 at my end. I think your end has 3… 342. It'll be closer to your end."

They raced down the right hand side of the room, and found table 310 in the third column from the wall.

"I can't see anything." Said Don.

"Keep looking." Said Larry.

"I see it. Something's taped onto the side of one of the legs." Don reached out to pull the paper off. And then he froze.

"What's it say?" Larry came over to Don's side of the table.

Don hastily ripped the paper off the table leg and in doing so, he'd ripped the clue. But it didn't matter. He only needed to see it once.

"We've got to get back to Charlie's place." Don began to run out toward the door.

"Was that the next clue?" Larry jogged to catch up.

"Some clue. It was Charlie's home number." Don began to sprint faster.

"Hey wait up!"

"I want to see if anything at Charlie's place has been moved."


End file.
